Return To Paradise
by Goddess Isa
Summary: Anya comes back to Sunnydale after the Ascension with only one thing in mind


TITLE: Return to Paradise  
AUTHOR: Goddess Isa  
EMAIL: goddessisa@aol.com  
SUMMARY: Anya comes back to Sunnydale after the Ascension with only one thing in mind  
SPOILER: Doppelgangland, The Prom, Graduation Day  
DISTRIBUTION: Sure, just email me & lmk where it's going - I like seeing my name in print =)  
FEEDBACK: Please, I'd hate to have to Slay for it. =P  
RATING: TV-14  
DISCLAIMER: Everyone belongs to Joss, I think. I think Xander should belong to me though. =)  
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I got the idea for the title from Nate's Road Trip stories, lol! WRITE MORE heehee.   
  
  
  
Anya hated nightclubs. In all her eleven hundred years, she'd never liked any kind of night spot that wasn't a couch in front of a big screen television with good angsty drama. She remembered watching shows like Peyton Place and Days of Our Lives and even 90210 and Party of Five and yelling at the screen, telling them she could come up with much better plots than they could with just one of her diaries. She liked playing the TV Game, as she called it. She liked watching other people suffer.   
  
And she liked watching people in love. There were so many. She'd gotten hooked on ER not too long ago and was currently obsessed with the relationship between Lucy and Carter. She could see them forming a lasting thing, if the writers would only do it right  
  
She sighed and moved with the line, making sure she had her fake ID in her hand. It was ridiculous that she had an ID, but just about everyone else in that line did too. The only difference between theirs and Anya's was that hers made her a thousand years younger, and theirs made them two or three years older.   
  
Chaos was a brand new club, only a few nights old, but she knew that Xander would be there. She knew he'd have his own pathetic ten-dollar ID and a pile of shot glasses in front of him. She looked around the busy night spot for him, sweaty, icky bodies bumping against her from time to time. She made a disgusted noise and approached the bar. She ordered a beer and while she was waiting for it, she spotted him.   
  
He was alone at a table, as she'd guessed. There was a line of six or seven shot glasses in front of him, as she'd guessed. The thing was, the bottle or Tequila was still full.   
  
"Waiting for it to change colour?" she asked, sitting down across from him.   
  
"Anya!" his eyes grew wide. "What are you doing here?"   
  
"I could ask you the same thing since I'm quite sure you're only eighteen years old."   
  
He rolled his eyes. He would've given her the finger, but that wasn't really his style. He sighed and looked at her. She was pretty, now that he thought about her. Her hair had gotten longer over the summer, and she wore it a bit darker now. Her green dress and shrug reminded him of something Cordelia might wear.   
  
"How was the road trip?" she asked, trying to get a real conversation going.   
  
"What is this?" he asked. "Are you trying to make nice 'cause you know I have friends that are Witches?"   
  
"No. Xander, I spent my summer driving all around the country trying to get over you."   
  
"Don't say you need to get over me. If you have to get over someone, that implies that you were together and you broke up and we've never had so much as one date."   
  
"Yes, we did. The prom, remember?"   
  
"Please, don't remind me. How many men did you burn the balls off of again? Fourteen?"   
  
"It's fifteen, but let's not go there." she grabbed the bottle of Tequila and swirled it in front of him. "I dare you to try and out drink me."   
  
"Ha. You've only had a thousand years practice."   
  
"Wanna try me?" she grinned.   
  
He grabbed the bottle from her and began filling the glasses. "I love a challenge."   
  
  
*****   
  
  
"And then Willow and I dared each other to jump off the diving board naked."   
  
Anya laughed. "Which one of you did it?"   
  
"Neither of us. Are you kidding? I didn't want her seeing my goods!"   
  
Anya cracked up.   
  
Xander looked hurt.   
  
"What's with you?" she asked.   
  
"My goods aren't a laughing matter."   
  
"Did you know you're a very weird person, especially for a human being?"   
  
"Well, my goal in life has always been to be called 'kind of weird' so you just made my life, pretty lady."   
  
Anya reached for the empty bottle of Tequila and tried to drink out of it anyway. "You think I'm pretty?"    
  
"I think I out drunkened you."   
  
"I think you're wrong!" she stood up and tried to walk a straight line by staring at the square tiles on the floor. She slid down onto her knees and looked at Xander with googly eyes. "How come I'm on my knees? This doesn't look like Church."   
  
"It's not," he threw a twenty on the table, not caring whether that was enough to cover the tab or not, and picked her up bridegroom style. He carried her out of the club and she perked up a bit once she was in the cool night air.   
  
"I think I can walk," she said, and he carefully let her stand on her own feet. He held onto her arm until they made their way onto the sidewalk. He slid his arm down hers until only their hands were linked and they started walking without a destination in mind.   
  
"You know Xander, I was so worried about you."  
  
"Nah, no one ever worries about me."   
  
"What happened? I went to the library first thing and when I saw the remains of the school....I lost it. I thought you'd died and I just lost it."   
  
"How'd you find out?"   
  
"Buffy was on patrol. I went looking for your grave and she told me the good news." she paused and stood by a fire hydrant. "I think I've gotta throw up."   
  
Xander held her hair back for her while she leaned over the hydrant and puked. When she was finished, he hugged her and then he had his own puking bout.   
  
When they were finished, they walked away from the home before they could get spotted. "Is that littering?" Xander asked.   
  
"I doubt it," she fished in her tiny purse for a package of Certs and popped a few into her mouth, then she freshened her lipstick.   
  
"So, why are you really back here? On the Hellmouth? I mean, for all you knew the world could've been ruled by a sixty foot snake and you came back anyway."   
  
"Sunnydale's like my Paradise," she said with a wistful look on her face. "You know how in fairy tales there's always a perfect town with a castle and a prince and princess? Well, that's what Sunnydale is for me. Everything is here. You're here."   
  
"I'm no prince."   
  
"You could be," she grinned. "If you changed your clothes."   
  
"What's wrong with my clothes?"   
  
"Besides the fact that you spilled beer all down the front of your shirt?"   
  
"Hey, that was by choice." there was a pause and then he looked at her with serious eyes. "I'm sorry Anya."   
  
"For what?"   
  
"For being so awful to you. At prom and everything. I mean, you couldn't help that you were a demon for God knows how long. You've got a history and you know how historical people are."   
  
"How are they?"   
  
"Like Giles," he smiled at her. "Talk, and talk, and talk, and talk..."   
  
"Wanna do something other than talk?" she leaned closer to him.   
  
"Yeah," he smiled at her. "I do."   
  
Their lips found each other in a sweet kiss as she put her arms around his neck and pulled him closer to her. He held her a bit reluctantly until he got used to the kiss, and then the groping began.   
  
She pulled away, gasping from air. "Oh, God. This is wrong."   
  
"Why? I thought you liked me."   
  
"I do. I just....we've been drinking, and I think you're still rebounding from Cordelia leaving."   
  
Xander gave her a strange look.   
  
"Buffy," she told him and he nodded. "I just don't want us to start a relationship based on Tequila at a horrible dance club we both crashed on a Friday night. I want it to be built on feelings, and romance, and emotions."   
  
"I do care about you," he touched her cheek but she clasped his hand in hers and pulled it away.   
  
"I know, me too, but I don't want us to start out this--"   
  
He grabbed her and kissed her, this time with a fiery passion. He let go of her and stared at her, watching her try to catch her breath.   
  
"Okay, what was that?" she asked.   
  
"A kiss. See, if there's one thing I learned from Cordelia, it's that the best relationships are built on one or two things. Frustration and hatred for each other."   
  
"We've got that," she muttered.   
  
"So how about a real date. Tomorrow night. The Bronze, no illegal activity or alcohol involved."   
  
"Deal." she almost smiled at him. "Will you walk me home?"   
  
"Sure."   
  
"Will you kiss me like that when we reach my porch?"   
  
"Of course."  



End file.
